A circular icon with a red and white quartered design, inspired by the Double Diamond Design Process VCD, is centered on a background of blue and light blue checkerboard squares.
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VCD 2024

Define.

After explorers returned home with troves of plants, minerals, gems, artefacts and pictures of the people and strange animals they found in far-off, exotic lands, the priceless spoils were used to build the collections of the great museums of the world including, for example, the British Museum, the Louvre and the Metropolitan. There, the treasures of their explorations were sorted, named, catalogued and displayed.

In the VCD Define phase students make sense of the insights, data and information they have collected during the Discover phase. This information is then used to frame a formal Brief.

A scientist in a white lab coat and stethoscope looks into a microscope, focusing on a sample in a laboratory setting with blurred shelves in the background.
(Image: Blue Planet Studio@shutterstock.com).

Takeaways

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Define

The Define phase is where students make sense of all the insights, data, and information collected during the Discover phase by sorting, analysing, aggregating, and synthesising research findings to clarify their design problem. This convergent thinking phase culminates in writing a formal brief that identifies the client, target audience characteristics, communication needs, purposes, contexts, constraints, and evaluation criteria that will guide the rest of the design process.

  • Transform Research into Usable Insights Through Analysis
    Students process their discovery research by aggregating quantitative data (averaging scores and ratings), summarising qualitative responses (emotions and perceptions from interviews), and anonymising participant information to protect privacy. Visual research must be sorted into categories, analysed using tools like four-quadrant matrices, and synthesised through observational sketches, colour swatches, and connections between past and contemporary designs to reveal trends and fuel creativity.
  • Reframe Problems Based on Stakeholder Insights
    After summarising stakeholder interests and influences discovered during research, students reframe their original design problem with greater clarity and understanding. This reframing considers how stakeholder expectations affect the problem scope and ensures the design challenge addresses real needs rather than assumed solutions.
  • Write a Comprehensive Brief as a Design Contract
    The brief serves as a formal document that clarifies conversations with clients and acts like a contract specifying deliverables. It must include detailed descriptions of the client (business type, location, mission), target audience characteristics (demographic and psychographic information), communication needs, purposes and functions, contexts for presentation and use, constraints and aesthetic expectations, and possible presentation formats for each required deliverable.
  • Establish Clear Evaluation Criteria for Design Success
    Students must create design evaluation criteria based on the brief's constraints and expectations, structured like a Pugh Matrix to measure success against audience experience, purpose/function, context, and design constraints. These criteria become the measurement tools for evaluating design ideas, concepts, and solutions throughout the remaining design process, ensuring all work meets the brief's specifications and client requirements.

Introduction

In this phase of the Design Process students make sense of the information, insights and research data they accumulated in the Discover phase. They process; review, summarise and sort and set out examples of research and results from focus groups and surveys. Then they begin to synthesise information to clarify and reframe the design problem in a more informed manner. The conclusion of the Define phase is for students to write a brief that will serve to guide the rest of the Design Process and yield constraints to be used as evaluation criteria.

Steps used in the Define phase include:

  • sort, analyse, aggregate, summarise, and order the examples, information and data gained through research
  • synthesise (select bits and join together bits) to build new information
  • clarify and reframe a problem, need or opportunity in the light of information and data yielded through the Discover phase into a brief
  • formulate a brief that identifies and describes a client and their communication need/s, the purpose, target audience or user characteristics, and context for the design and a list of constraints that will be used to guide the development and selection of concepts and serve as evaluation criteria
  • write design evaluation criteria to support informed evaluations of design ideas, concepts and solutions
  • Iteration in the Define phase includes conducting further research to support the clarification and reframing of a design problem

The Define phase requires students to use Convergent Thinking.

Jump to
Clarify & reframe
Make sense of information
Surveys & Interviews
Audience persona
Journey mapping
Empathy mapping
Design Research
The brief
Sample brief
Design evaluation criteria

Clarify and reframe the design problem for stakeholders, audience and users

In this stage, students revisit the insights they gained through their exploration and elaboration of their proposed design problem identified during the Discover phase. Here they summarise the interests and influences of stakeholders, including audience members and users and then re-frame their design problem to be used as a basis for the Brief.

Summarise interests and influences of stakeholders

Students summarise their findings relating to the stakeholders including audience members and users. They describe stakeholders’ interests and influences and explain how these factors might affect their expectations for how their design problem should or could be framed.

Reframe Design Problem

Students reframe their design problem, carefully considering the insights gained through the Discover phase. They may refer back to the format used in the Discover phase. The design problem may be reframed using the question or statement approach.

task

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1.1 Stakeholders

Revisit the information you gained through the Discover phase and identify and describe the stakeholders who might be impacted by the scope of the design problem. Explain how the influence and interests of stakeholders may affect the framing of a design problem and the development of design ideas.
1.2 Reframe design problem
Revisit the draft design problem written in the Discover phase. Carefully reframe the problem or opportunity using the format shown here. You may reframe your design problem as a question or statement.
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Make sense of information

In this section, students gather the visual and written information gained through their surveys, interviews, focus groups and research done in the Discovery phase. However, information alone doesn’t really create a sound base for the Development of ideas. Students must make sense of all of it. Achieving a greater sense of awareness is facilitated by using skills of aggregating, sorting, analysing, interpreting and synthesising. Students can then leverage information to allow them to innovate beyond the inspirations they have found.

Surveys, interviews and focus groups

Students will have conducted at least one survey, interview or focus group to discover the needs and preferences of their target audiences or users. However, in order to understand these needs the data that has been recorded needs to be processed, aggregated and summarised. In this step, students are required to adhere to the principles of Ethical Research Methods and fulfil the obligations they made with the participants of design research surveys and focus groups. One such obligation is to disconnect personal identifying information from data that will be used to determine audience and users’ needs and preferences.

Quantitative data
Quantitative (numerical) data gained from responses to questions that ask participants to score or rate options, is aggregated or averaged to provide an overall position for audience members sharing similar demographic data.

A pie chart showing teacher experience: 76.9% have been teaching 10+ years (purple), 23.1% have been teaching 6–10 years (green), and no responses in the other categories. Total responses: 13.
A screenshot showing the years of teaching experience of Target Learning VCD users. (Please note: Real data not used)
A table compares teaching sectors and experience levels on nine learning features, showing average ratings for each feature at the bottom row with colored highlights. Columns include success criteria, details, resources, quizzes, and assessments.
A screenshot showing the most preferred features of Target Learning VCD from users in different sectors of education. (Please note: Real data not used)

Qualitative data
Qualitative (non-numeric) data gives insights into audience members’ emotions and perceptions. These responses from surveys, interviews or focus groups need to be read and summarised to provide positions on audience and user attitudes, values and trends. This data is essential in helping students form the constraints and expectations for their Brief.

A survey question about why members purchased a Target Learning VCD membership; responses mention curriculum support, student differentiation, teaching aid, digital textbook use, guidance, and combining units for deeper understanding.
A screenshot showing qualitative responses to a question regarding reasons for users purchasing Target Learning VCD. (Please note: Real data not used)

AUDIENCE Persona

An audience persona is a detailed ‘picture’ of a typical audience member or user. They are usually fictional, as they are constructed as from data obtained in interviews and surveys. It is usual practice to include images of the typical audience member and their lifestyles and purchasing preferences. Annotate images to form an informal infographic referring to demographic, psychographic and behavioural details as necessary.

Example includes:

Audience Persona

A mood board labeled RESEARCH - TARGET AUDIENCE MOOD BOARD featuring a collage of cozy coffee shop interiors, plants, coffee drinks, desserts, and inviting dining spaces, conveying a warm and modern café vibe.
A mood-board to make the target audience's preferences visible. Alyssa Ngo.
A colorful infographic detailing the audience profile for QM attendees, featuring a blank human silhouette surrounded by sections on gender/age, socio-economic status, interests, location, key words, and photos of diverse people.

An illustrated target audience analysis. Eve Wells.

A printed research document titled Audience Analysis outlines age range, socio-economic status, disposable income, interests, and information sources for young working professionals. Bullet points and bold headings organize the content.
A written target audience analysis. Amy Nguyen.

Journey Mapping

Mapping out the user's journey through a product or service helps designers visualise users’ experiences and identify pain points and opportunities for improvement. This task can be done using a storyboard where the designer makes sketches of each stage of the process. This allows for in-depth thought as to what is happening and what might be improved.

Example include:

Journey Mapping

A user journey map with four columns labeled Awareness, Discovery, Support, and Usage, describing Janes steps, thoughts, and emotions when choosing and using a mental wellbeing app, with colored sections for each stage.

Empathy Mapping

Activities like empathy interviews or empathy mapping help designers and teams immerse themselves in the user's perspective to foster a deep understanding of their needs and emotions. An example of this is Starbucks requires its designers to work as a barista for a month before they start designing to bring them directly to the end users.

Example include:

Empathy Map

An empathy mapping chart for a Bullying Awareness Campaign about a girl named Jill. It shows her feelings, actions, what she hears, sees, says, does, her pains, and gains related to bullying in school.

task

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2.1 Gather results from Surveys, Interviews and Focus groups
Gather the information collected and recorded during any surveys, interviews and focus groups you conducted about your target audience or anticipated users.
2.2 Anonymise results

Use pseudonyms or generic descriptors to disconnect personal identifying information from participants’ responses. Examples of anonymous, generic descriptors include;

  • young adult male
  • single urban office worker
  • primary school children

Further information on anonymising results can be found on the UK Data Service, SurveyMonkey and Google websites.

2.3 Aggregate, average and summarise data and information
Aggregate, average and summarise quantitative or numerical data from your surveys. You can do this by creating a spreadsheet from a Google sheet or from any other survey you have designed. Process and summarise the most important needs learnt from your audience or users.
2.4 Summarise quantitative data
Add up totals and average data points to show the preferred or desired features according to your target audience or users. Then write a summary that lists these features in order of priority.
2.5 Summarise qualitative data
Review the written or recorded responses from your surveys, interviews or focus group. Pay particular attention to the ways users describe the experiences they have had or would like to see, to give you insights into how to cater for their needs.
2.6 Audience persona
Explain in detail your target audience. Really find out about all their demographic and psychographic information. You may choose to illustrate this page with images referencing their lifestyle.
2.7 Journey or empathy mapping

Depending on your design field, conduct a User Journey Map or Empathy Map to understand how users navigate and enjoy an interactive experience.

2.8 Synthesise constraints
Create a list of constraints learnt from your target audience or users that you can use for your Brief. Pay particular attention to the information you found that will help you to design specifically for the purposes and contexts of your design problem.
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design research

Students analyse their collections of visual material to reveal styles in the use of visual language, trends and preferences of target audiences and users. They discover how designs have changed throughout different historical contexts and how they are designed differently to meet audiences from different socioeconomic backgrounds.

Sort and categories visual inspiration

Following the collection of visual information comes sorting, analysing and synthesising. Sorting images, textures, type and iconography, can take the form of categorising, grouping or grading by shape, colour, price, country of origin, year made, etc. This technique reveals trends within categories of designs and products that would otherwise be hard to see. Evaluations of products and designs can also be made by reflecting on a design’s suitability to fulfil the need it serves. Each example can be measured against the preferences found in your target audience or users. They can also be discussed in terms of how designers created aesthetic qualities and meet the objectives of the function.

SYNTHESISE AND INTERPRET MATERIAL

To further stimulate students' engagement in their research and understanding of trends, they should synthesise and interpret information. This takes research, from passive collections of pictures, words and snippets of life into fuel for creativity by uploading it to the designer. Techniques of synthesis include;

  • making observational sketches copying parts of designs
  • adapting designs to new contexts
  • combining selected parts of designs
  • recording colour swatches and type samples
  • imagining new uses for designs
  • identifying and making connections between past and contemporary designs with annotated examples

Examples of analysis and synthesis in research

Fashion design sketchbook page featuring Cruella de Vil on the left in a fur coat, and three illustrated dress designs with handwritten notes on a background of red and black watercolor brushstrokes.
A nice folio page showing how a student can extend understanding of a product by elaborating on research material. Rene Coco, 2008.
A research presentation page includes sketches and photos of leafy green pot plants, handwritten notes about plant characteristics, and ideas for a café logo called Greenco Café, featuring trailing and large-leafed plants.
This page shows research of components of a logo design that have been elaborated and extended upon to form the basis for visualisation drawing. Alyssa Ngo, 2020.
A hand-drawn chart titled Research: Logo & Brand Identity, Colour Spectrum featuring various brand logos, sorted by color and by use of symbols or text, including Tesla, Netflix, Spotify, McDonalds, Ford, and Cadbury.
This page shows a '4 Quadrant Matrix' that has been used to organise research images. One axis is colour spectrum and the other is symbols to text. Alyssa Ngo.

task

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3.1 SORT RESEARCH
Depending on the subject of your research, before you present images, sort them into categories. Examples of designs such as logos can be sorted and grouped on the basis of colours, images, degree of complexity or the use of selected Design Elements or Principles. Sorting yields information about trends, making them visible to the researcher.
3.2 FOUR QUADRANT MATRIX
Collect a range of designs or products in the category that is related to your design problem. Create a Four Quadrant Matrix where each segment of the chart is labelled with 4 words to describe the products or designs. Suggestions are expensive/cheap - creative/traditional; safe/renegade - easy to use/hard to use. Arrange the images you have collected on the table so as to evaluate each one in relation to the characteristics you have set.
3.3 SYNTHESISE IT
Use the dot points above as prompts to help you engage with your research. Use synthesised designs as starting points for new designs, next in the Development phase.
3.4 ANNOTATE YOUR JOURNEY
The object of research is not what you found but how what is found can be used to power future ideas. Annotate all of the designs you have found describing how they could contribute to solving the design problem you have identified.
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Frame problem as a brief

The clarification of a design problem in the Define phase provides students with the knowledge and understanding to write a formal brief. This is a document where the designer describes a design problem and elaborates on expected deliverables as one or two communication needs. On this page, you will find a series of practical ways to learn how to write a brief. We will begin with tasks that unpack the meaning of all the terms found in a brief and then move to drafting and completing a brief.

WHAT IS A BRIEF?

A brief is a written statement a designer writes to clarify conversations and communications they have had with a client. Often, a client suggests many different ideas and preferences and keeping track of them can be tricky. After a designer has heard their client’s wishes, it is essential they clarify and lock them in to ensure that both the client and designer have the same understanding of the design problem and communication need. The brief forms part of a contract between a designer and their client and is the basis of how judgements on the success of a design solution will be evaluated. In summary, the brief is a kind of checklist detailing the specifications of a communication need and also identifies the kind of deliverables that the designer must supply. In our study, deliverables are called ‘Presentation Formats’.

CAUTION

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Good to know
FOR THE YEAR 12 SAT IN VCD

Teachers and students must consult the relevant documentation for their course. Specifically, the ‘Study Design for Visual Communication Design’ and the ‘VCE Visual Communication Design: Administrative information for School-Based Assessment’ in the relevant year, both published by VCAA, must be read for up-to-date requirements of a brief for the School Assessed Task.

This information will include descriptions of the content required for a brief, formats to be used and word limits. They also document the requirements regarding when a brief is to be written when it is to be signed off by the teacher and the correct assessment of a brief.

RECOMMENDED FORMAT

There is no specific format required for a brief. However, suggestions regarding the format students should use include a letter or email from a client and a document structured with subheadings. From time to time briefs for different Areas of Study will have different requirements and kinds of deliverables. For more information visit the page on the Brief.

Briefs given to students or written by them in Years 9, 10 and 11 often detail one client and one communication need. By contrast, the brief written by students for the SAT in VCD requires the student to identify one client and two communication needs with two final presentations that are distinctly different in purpose and presentation formats. The subheadings to include in this style of the brief is;

Brief

  • Description of client
  • Description of the Target audience or user’s characteristics

Communication Need 1

  • Description of communication need
  • Purpose of presentation and function of design
  • Context of presentation and of design
  • List of constraints and aesthetic expectations for the design
  • Possible or proposed presentation formats for Presentation 1

Communication Need 2

  • Description of communication need
  • Purpose of presentation and function of design
  • Context of presentation and of design
  • List of constraints and aesthetic expectations for the design
  • Possible or proposed presentation formats for Presentation 2

Subheadings explained

Below are explanations of each subheading used in a Brief.

Client

Stylized graphic of a woman in the foreground, with figures, large tires, and a forklift in the background, all in grayscale and orange tones.
Description

A real or fictitious client is identified. As designers work commercially, their clients are usually business operators or executives within an organisation. In the case of architectural design, a client might be an individual, requesting a new home design. There are three ways to elaborate on a description of a client. These are;

  • The kind of business
  • The location and scope of business
  • The business mission or values

Target audience or users

Simplified illustration of two adults, one pushing a baby stroller, on a blue circular background. One adult has a coffee cup symbol on their torso.
Description

The target audience or users are the people whom the design is directed towards or who will use or experience it. The target audience is seldom the client except if the client is requesting a design for themselves. This may happen when an individual requests a house or landscape design. Students describe a target audience by referring to any relevant audience characteristics including;

  • Demographic information (facts about the audience)
    • Age
    • Gender
    • Ethnicity
    • Socioeconomic level
    • Location
  • Psychographic information (what they think and believe)
    • Interests
    • Mindsets
    • Values
    • Beliefs
  • Behaviours (how they use messages, objects, environments and interactive experiences 
    • Engagement
    • Process of actions

Communication Need

A blue and white cube with large question marks on each visible side, set against a blue circular background.
Description
A communication need is the reframing of the design problem. A brief description of the need is required but students should avoid describing a potential design as making assumptions about the form of a design solution prevents innovation in the following phases of the Design Process.

Purpose and function

A large blue question mark inside a light blue circle, with a bright white glare partially covering the top right area of the image.
Description
The purpose of the presentation and the function of the design solution are identified. Students are encouraged to be mindful that whilst they might be designing a three-dimensional object such as a kettle, for instance, the presentation format for delivery to the client may be a series of technical drawings and pictorial views of the kettle. Therefore, the purpose of the presentation must be described. However, students may also wish to describe the function of the kettle, which would be to boil water.

Context of presentation and of design

A graphic of a road with dashed white center lines, leading toward a large gray semicircle. A red hexagonal sign with a yellow border is on the right side, resembling a stylized traffic sign.
Description
Context on VCD refers to the location where the design solution will be either shown to the client, located or used. In a similar way to the purpose and function, described above, students must identify the context for the presentation but they may also identify the context where the design will be located and used.

Constraints and expectations

A graphic illustration of a thermometer showing 40 degrees, with a red temperature scale, set inside a circular orange background and framed by a black square.
Description

Students identify a list of constraints and aesthetic expectations for the design. ‘Constraints’ refer to technical or physical limitations, features, properties or characteristics that have been found during the process of clarification and reframing, to be essential for the design to function as will be intended. Examples of constraints include;

  • language
  • size
  • visual and type content
  • safety and ergonomics
  • accessibility, useability, equality
  • materiality
  • durability
  • portability or transportation characteristics
  • environmental footprint

‘Aesthetic considerations’ refer to the visual style or look and feel desired for an environment, product, visual communication or interactive experience. Examples of aesthetic considerations include;

  • futuristic
  • minimal
  • rustic
  • hand-made
  • old-fashioned, retro

Students should be mindful that when writing constraints, not to describe a design solution. Constraints and expectations are characteristics that are required or desirable for a design solution.

Presentation formats

An illustrated brown hand holding an open pamphlet with green and yellow sections, on a light pink circular background.
Description

Presentation Formats refer to the kind of presentation that the students will make to deliver design solutions to the client at the conclusion of the Deliver phase of the Design Process. ‘Possible Presentation Formats’ indicate that the student might choose between different formats during the Deliver phase. Examples of Presentation Formats include;

  • Branding presentation board
  • Brochure/ flyer
  • Poster
  • Technical drawing
  • Pictorial drawings and illustration
  • Photograph
  • Model
  • Walk-through animation
  • Storyboard
  • Website
  • Prototype
  • Functioning Interactive Experience Prototype
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Sample brief

Below is a sample brief from a Year 12 student. The client is a Dutch DJ who wants to make a new music festival. The communication needs are a branding package and festival poster, tickets and merchandise.
A project brief document outlining tasks for creating branding and promotional materials for Triangularum Music Festival, including target audience, client background, presentation requirements, and sections for student and teacher signatures.

task

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4.1 Explore subheadings

Your teacher might choose some examples of designs for you. Practice identifying and describing each design in terms of each of the subheadings. For example, if you had a Ford Ranger as an example design and you were describing a client, you would say ‘Ford, a global, mass-market, auto manufacturer based in the USA.’

This activity can be done individually or collaboratively in pairs or in table groups.

4.2 Draft brief
Copy the subheadings as shown on this page into a text file. Begin to populate your file with descriptions related to your own design problem, under each heading.
4.3 Get feedback
Get peer or teacher feedback on your draft brief by presenting your ideas in a design critique. Present to your table, the class or your teacher.
4.4 Resolve brief
Act on the feedback you received to complete your brief.
4.5 Sign off
Print and sign your brief in accordance with your teacher’s instructions.
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Design evaluation criteria

The constraints and expectations identified in the Brief are used to create criteria for the evaluation of the design ideas, concepts and solutions at various stages during the Design Process. The Design Criteria are structured so as to measure the success of student work in relation to the purposes, contexts, audience or user characteristics and design constraints identified in the brief.

The Design Evaluation Criteria follow the structure of a Pugh Matrix table.

Below is a sample of how Design Evaluation Criteria could be used to evaluate a design solution.

An evaluation criteria sheet for a double diamond design process diagram, with colorful icons for each phase: Discover, Define, Develop, and Deliver. A table rates criteria such as audience experience and constraints out of 10.

task

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5.1 Write design evaluation criteria

Write a set of (about 10) design evaluation criteria. Ensure that the criteria are well written so that they evaluate different aspects of your design ideas, concepts or solutions in relation to the;

  • Audience or user experience
  • Purpose or function
  • Context
  • Constraints
5.2 Test Design Evaluation Criteria
Show or read your criteria to your partner. Ensure that each point addresses the heading that is should. Modify criteria that need adjustment.
5.3 Use Design Evaluation Criteria
Rate a design idea, concept or solution using a new copy of your Design Evaluation Criteria.
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